The udhiya (sacrifice of Eid)

The udhiya (sacrifice of Eid al-Adha) is one of the best attested institutions of fiqh: the encyclopedia opens the chapter by recording the scholars' consensus on its legality, then examines whether it is obligatory or recommended.

Obligation or sunna?

The first thing we did on this day was to pray, then return and sacrifice: whoever does so reaches our sunna; whoever slaughters before offers only meat to his family, with nothing of the rite.al-Bukhari 5545 ; Muslim 1961

For the majority of jurists (Malikis in the most widespread view, Shafi'is, Hanbalis, and Abu Yusuf in one transmission), the sacrifice is a sunna that the able person does not neglect, but which becomes obligatory only through commitment. The evidence cited: the words « reaches our sunna », the hadith of Umm Salama which makes withholding hair and nails conditional on the will (« if one of you wants to sacrifice », Muslim 1977), the attitude of Abu Bakr and Umar who refrained for fear people would take it as an obligation (al-Bayhaqi 18813), and Ibn Abbas settling for meat bought with a single dirham to show that nothing is required.

The Hanafis, for their part, make it an obligation for the wealthy resident: their chapter of conditions details the four criteria, being Muslim, free, resident and wealthy on the day of the sacrifice. The traveler is exempt, as is the poor person, by analogy with the charity of breaking the fast: « no charity except from the wealth of the rich ».

One animal for the whole household

In the time of the Prophet, a man would slaughter a sheep for himself and for the people of his house: they would eat and feed others; then people grew fond of showing off and it changed.at-Tirmidhi 1505 ; Ibn Majah 3147

Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that a single sheep suffices for a person and his whole household, based on the hadith of Abu Ayyub and the Prophet's practice of slaughtering a ram « for himself and for the people of his house » (Muslim 1967). Abu Hanifa, however, holds that the sheep suffices for one person alone. Sharing a camel or a cow among seven people is, by contrast, agreed upon by Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, based on Jabir's hadith: « at Hudaybiya we slaughtered a camel for seven men and a cow for seven men » (reported by Muslim). The sheep is never shared, by consensus recorded by an-Nawawi.

Which animal to choose

For Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, the order of preference is: the camel, then the cow, then the sheep, then the goat. Malikis prefer the sheep and the ram: Allah described the animal that ransomed Ismail as « a magnificent sacrifice » (as-Saffat 107), and the Prophet used to slaughter two horned rams (al-Bukhari 5564 ; Muslim 1966).

Practical note

The conditions of the animal (age, defects) and the time of the sacrifice are covered in the following pages.